Oil Ministry Clarifies Gas Export Policy

The Ministry of Oil has confirmed that the gas recently exported from Iraq was what it described as “condensed liquids (C5) or ‘natural gasoline,’” a by-product from the associated gas investment extracts used for the industrial purposes, and “not the dry gas which is used for the power generation”.

Hamid Y. Salih, the deputy minister for gas, stressed that it was important to distinguish between these gas condensed liquids and the other types of the gas fuel.

He said that power stations use the dry gas, and the Iraqi production of this type of fuel does not meet the needs of all the power stations at the current time, so the ministry of oil imports the rest from the nearby countries.

He added also that the ministry plans to increase production of dry gas to provide the necessary fuel for domestic use in the next few years.

Mr. Assim Jihad the spokesman of the ministry said that the ministry is keen to meet the need of the power stations of the different types of fuel such as the dry gas, the gas oil, the crude oil and the black oil, either from the national production or from the imported fuel by coordination with the associated committees with the ministry of electricity.

Mr. Jihad sad also that the ministry was keen to invest the associated gas with oil perfectly by transforming the flare gas into useful source of energy for the electric power stations and the petrochemicals factories, as well as producing liquefied gas or (cooking gas), and condensed gas or (natural gasoline) for industrial purposes.